Visual Aid - a book of charts that explain how the world works

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There are 10 pages view-able on Amazon, and one of them is that “4-tastes” map of the tongue that has been shown to be bullsh. Some of the reviews point out some pretty unfortunate errors, too.

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Ugh, the equations above the circles… no wonder some people hate math!

They use an “x” to denote multiplication, when “x” is also a common variable name. A cross symbol or a dot or nothing would be better.

Worse, they use the “x” inconsistently – D=2R doesn’t use it when C=2πxR ad Area = πxR² does.

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The post says:

Visual Aid and Visual Aid 2 are collections of colorful images and diagrams explaining, depicting and comparing elements from a wide range of topics.

It doesn’t say they’re reliable, informative, or correct - so quit your complaining.

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Here’s a review from Amazon:

I’m a fan of graphical design. And this book could have been pretty good. I can’t help but be impressed with an effort to capture an explanation of the Big Bang on one small page, using less than 50 words. Unfortunately, the book is full of factual errors. That ruins the entire book because none of it can be trusted. Here are a few examples:

  • There are 36 inches in a yard. The book says there are 48 inches in a yard. On the same page it shows a meter being equal to more than 50 inches. A meter is 39.37 inches.
  • Gravity is a force that acts straight down. The “How Aeroplanes Fly” page shows gravity pulling the airplane down AND FORWARD because the plane is pitched up (as if taking off). And the airflow diagram shows the air separating off the bottom of the wing and heading straight down. It actually flows around the wing.
  • NASA says submarines can dive to about 900 meters. One article I found says the best of the US submarines, the Seawolf, has a crush depth of 2400 feet (730 meters). The book says submarines can dive to 2400 meters. The “2400” coincidence makes it seem like someone didn’t understand the difference between feet and meters. As a result, the graphic is scaled incorrectly by a factor of about 3.
  • There are 16 fluid ounces in a pint. The book shows it as 20. Or maybe 19, with a generous reading of the graphic. And there are 33.8 ounces in a liter. The graphic shows more than 35.

Then, there might be some cool information on pages like “Proportions of a Human Face,” but the graphics are poorly executed so I can’t tell what’s what, despite careful study. There’s a page of Smilies like :slight_smile: but without any explanation. I might like to expand my repetoire, but I don’t know what many of them imply.

Even physically, the book is not well made. The Human Digestive System and Heimlich Maneuver pages are physically connected. I had to use scissors to separate them.

There are another thousand or so statements of fact in the book which I didn’t carefully check. But since they missed the easy ones, I have no faith in any of the more complex ones.

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Theory != theorem

… and there is barely a hint that Pythagoras’ theorem involves right triangles.

[quote=“Kranok, post:5, topic:48530, full:true”]
There are 16 fluid ounces in a pint.[/quote]
Not in England. I think this was published in London,

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I have no great confidence in a book that has something wrong on the very page you show.

adj + opp = hyp is not true.

adj^2 + opp^2 = hyp^2 is.

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